Most of our clients have a specific campaign in mind when they produce an explainer video, such as a new landing page, or upcoming trade show. And while these are certainly great occasions to utilize a dynamic video, it is only a start. Videos are a little like WD-40. They can be used in many different ways, and the more you use them, the more return you will get on your investment.

So here are a few practical video marketing ideas you may not have considered to help you get started. Not all of these ideas are a good fit for every company, but you can pick and chose the options that seem promising for your industry.

Landing Pages

Explainer videos are very powerful addition to landing pages because you can immediately engage your viewers with a dynamic presentation that gives an overview of your offering. People are far more likely to watch a video than read sales content, and at the end of the video you can present them with a form to fill out in order to receive more information. Just make sure your video isn’t too long, or you might lose your audience. Learn more in our new article "Tips for Integrating Videos on Landing Pages".

Landing page video example.

Pre-Roll Youtube Ads

You know those annoying ads that pop up on youtube before the video you are there to watch? They can actually be a great way to reach a very specific audience of potential customers based on their location, or interests. Youtube Pre-roll campaigns are controlled via Google Adwords, so you have a lot of control over the campaign. Most explainer videos are too long for pre-roll advertising out of the box, but it is easy to modify an existing video to create a short teaser version that will work really well. You can then drive viewers from the ad to a landing page on your website where the full video is located. For more information view our guide "Video Advertising on Youtube".

Youtube pre-roll video example

Sales Presentations

If your sales team is constantly repeating the same pitch and explanation of what your company does, a dynamic video on an iPad could be a great, time saving resource for them. Make sure they know about all the videos your company has available, and provide access to the offline files so they can use them for in-person presentations where there is no wifi.

Email Newsletters

Videos can be a great source of content for your email newsletters and campaigns. Send them to new leads to spark interest, or to old customers as an update. You generally can’t embed video directly in an email, but you can use a thumbnail image in the email that looks like a video. Then when viewers click on the image, you can have the video open in a new browser and start playing automatically. With tools like Wistia and Mailchimp you can even see who clicks on your video, and how much they watch. Learn more, check out our article How to Incorporate Videos in your Email Campaigns.

Newsletter video example

Retargeting Ads

Retargeting ads allow you to show content to people who have visited your site at some point in the past. Video works great for retargeting because it is easier to consume than written material, and viewers are more likely to interact with it. Reach your potential customers on Facebook, Youtube, or across the web with your videos.

Search Engine Traffic

No matter how you plan to use your videos, make sure you also upload them to youtube and add strong titles and meta tags that use terms your customers might be searching for. Google actually displays video content first in search results, so if you have a video online that is relevant to a search query, it could attract some traffic. Use annotation links within the youtube video to link viewers directly to your website.

Search result video example

Trade Shows

Many companies use videos playing on big monitors to attract visitors at trade shows, and while that can be a great attention grabber, it is often hard for people to hear anything in a noisy convention center. Instead, consider setting up several iPads with headphones that viewers can watch your marketing videos on. They get to learn more about your company in a fun, low commitment way, and you get to engage more people with less manpower.

Social Media Ads

The various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin have very advanced advertising options that allow you to promote your content to specific audience groups. Consider promoting your video content as a way to raise awareness of your offerings, and to drive traffic to your website. Even if you don’t run ads, including video content on your social profiles will allow visitors to very quickly get an idea of what you have to offer.

Social media video ad example

In Conclusion

This is not an extensive list by any means, and I’m sure there are many other ways to utilize explainer videos in your marketing campaigns. But hopefully this post will provide you with some fresh ideas, and get you thinking outside of the box when it comes to video marketing. Definitely let us know if you have any questions about these various video marketing campaign ideas!